Eros joins hands with Russian film distribution company Central Partnership

MUMBAI: Indian film studio Eros International has entered into a strategic partnership with Russian distribution and production company Central Partnership (CP) – an affiliate of Gazprom Media Holding – to promote and distribute Indian and Russian content across multiple platforms in both countries.

This association includes exploitation via licensing of intellectual property rights owned by each party in their respective markets and distribution of film projects for both

India and Russia, opening up the market for the two companies to explore new geographies.

As part of the deal, CP will dub films from Eros’ film library in Russian language enabling the company to cater to a much larger audience in Russia and can further utilise the dubbed content on its digital platform, Eros Now, to reach out to a wider audience in Russia.

Jyoti Deshpande, group CEO Eros International, said, “India and Russia have historically always enjoyed a strong and strategic relationship. With our entry into the Russian market, we continue to build our strong global position and are delighted to take the lead in associating with Central Partnership.”She added, “Russia’s domestic market potential is promising and coupled with the rise in digital consumption by local audiences, we see a huge opportunity in exploiting exciting, unique and high-quality content together to reach audiences across the two Diasporas.”

With the growth of satellite pay TV in Russia, there is an increased demand for premium digital and television content. This alliance, Eros said, will pave the way for CP to showcase extensive repository of Bollywood films from the Eros library on pay TV.

CP will also approach free TV channels to explore showcasing of Indian titles, while Eros will distribute CP media assets on Indian television.

This collaboration will also enable the launch of Eros Now, the on-demand OTT digital platform of Eros, in Russia and CIS. CP will showcase Eros Now’s VOD content on digital distribution network RUFORM through Rutube (web video streaming service targeted in Russia) while Eros will facilitate featuring Russian content on Eros Now.

Pavel Stepanov, CEO, Central Partnership, added, “Our strategic partnership with Eros is a big step for both companies in their international expansion, since content from India is now underrepresented in Russia and vice-versa. Our plan is to benefit from both companies’ leading positions in domestic markets to change this layout. Moreover, historically India and Russia have been close, and we expect this collaboration to flourish in the light of the current political climate.”